VICKERS MK6B's resto

[colin jones]

Hi Lynn, yes you're right. Who owns the carriers over there and are in the same workshop. Have you any photos of them. They too are consecutive numbers also.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by colin jones

Hi Lynn, yes you're right. Who owns the carriers over there and are in the same workshop. Have you any photos of them. They too are consecutive numbers also.

One is in the NZ Army's museum in the Nth Island, the other is in private ownership in the Sth Island.

They have occaisionally been reunited over the years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gUa5TdHPCk

[Lynn Eades]

That's the top of my head in the gunners seat at the start of the clip.

[Lynn Eades]

Here is all three, HMH243, HMH244, and my NZ built NZR6
HMH243 has never been sand blasted and when Bruce repainted her, he followed the existing lines which close up you can still see.

We have digressed. Back to Wombat and Bowerbird.

[Russ Gregg]

The slide on the bottom of the tray is definitely original, and I think Colin will find that when the turret is rotated 90 degrees to the left the back edge of it will line up nicely with the edge of the hull so that it can be emptied on to the ground or for the more conscientious crew, into a container placed on the flat top of the left side fender. I would think the hinged front panel was a later addition when they found the casings would sometimes bounce out the front.
Brilliant work Colin.

[Dave lean]

Colin Alford's contribution , ref Tank Training Vol 2 part 3 No4 1936 states in para 2/1 that these hinged plates are "splash Plates" But only the poms would describe them as such? I suppose one could be splashed by spent casings, although the design looks like it would trap casings in the lower section just above the hinge, potentially limiting elevation. If these plates were to prevent mud etc from splashing into the works then the design seems in adequate just the same.
Colin Jones, you should have started on these tanks 50 years ago when there was a good chance of finding some old crew members that would know all this stuff.....

[tankbarrell]

Splash likely refers to bullet splash, the fluid like pieces of the bullet that find their way through the smallest of cracks when they hit the armour.